I found this hike a few years back, and started to prepare and psych myself up for it last year. I had been looking for an overlap in good weather and my availability, and it happened last week. Booked some last minute leave and after a few days to prepare, I set out. 50km of hiking over 3 days over the 11 highest peaks in Australia.
https://www.trailhiking.com.au/hikes/australias-highest-peaks/
I snuck out of work a little early Thursday and drove up to Thredbo for the night staying in some cheap off-season ski lodge type place. Out the door by 7 and got to Charlotte Pass around 8.
Was an amazing day for it - warm, sunny, fluffy clouds, although quite breezy (I suspect this is normal up here!). Mid 20s in the days, and ~10 overnight for both Friday and Saturday, with Sunday being overcast and rain in the arvo. Just days before it was wet and cold, with overnight temps getting close to freezing!
Started off by going down and crossing the Snowy River, then going up to Blue Lake.
Some more uphill along the main trail got me to the edge of the plateau and the detour to Mount Twynam and Watsons Crags. I really enjoyed leaving my backpack on the main trail for this part. After returning to the main trail, it was to Mount Northcote and I found a good camp spot under Muellers Peak.The views were amazing!
It has been a long day and I had a hard earned nap and lazy evening!
Slept reasonably well, and love the new tent. I did have a freak out thinking my replacement air mattress also had a leak - turns out it just lost a lot of pressure as I inflated in the heat of the arvo and then the temp dropped a lot at evening; it stayed inflated overnight. Opened the tent just as the sun was coming up and I had a deer grazing close by. Magic.
I had a quick breakfast and broke camp early. And so began the god awful Saturday adventure! Turns out most of the day was going off trail, up many steep hills, and some rather intense and dangerous rock scrambling. A tough day at the best of times... and I foolishly carried my full backpack the whole way! Two girls were following the same track and camped nearby, bumped into them and chatted shortly after setting off Saturday. They were smart enough to realise that most of the day was spent doing a big U walk and returning just 500m up the main trail from where we camped. So they left their camp setup and backpacks there, and spent the day unencumbered with just a small day pack. I felt so stupid! Carrying the backpack all day broke me... I went beyond exhausted! Take note for next time Tim!
I did survive and eventually got back to the main trail, although my spirit was broken! Thankfully the peaks and views throughout this leg made it worthwhile.
Then it was up and up, and up, to Kosciuszko. Pretty sure I went here in like a grade 6 school excursion, but I can't remember much. Was pretty cool being the highest person on mainland Australia briefly.
I then continued on for another hour or so towards Rams Head North and found a camp spot. Everything hurt by then! Needed to lie down for an hour or so before I was able to finish setting up camp and even think about cooking dinner. And did I mention I had a hiking pole failure? Made walking fun, and trying to setup a hiking pole tent even funner!
Alas I had a terrible night sleep, despite being knackered. Although it was a lovely Sunday morning, it was due to rain early arvo. I was a zombie. And I noticed that the gpx route was another day off trail... I decided to just explore Rams Head a little then backtrack to Kosciuszko and follow the main trail back to Charlotte Pass instead. Glad I did, I was able to make decent time and I enjoyed just following an easy path.
Got back to the car around lunch time, and then headed to Jindabyne where I had a motel booked for the night. Having a shower never felt so good and then had another much needed arvo nap. Headed to the local lake side pub for a well deserved beer and parma for dinner. Never been here before, was a nice town.
Up bright an early, enjoyed the motels continental breakfast spread, and spent Monday driving home. Got in around 3pm and it was good to be home!
Notes for future Tim:
- I packed pretty well! There were only a few things I didn't use at all and this is a good thing (rain coat, PLB, medkit, wag-bag). Didn't get much use from the chair and thongs, could have left those and saved a fair bit of weight and space.
- I started getting a raw spot on my toe and applying a band-aid prevented it from becoming a blister. I was surprised how few band-aids I had in my giant medkit. Should add some blister gear.
- Discovered why the twist/telescopic pole types are cheapest. Managed to fix it with pliers and WD40 when I got home so will hopefully get some more life out of them, but will certainly upgrade to a better type when they die.
- Sleeping bag liner disappointed. Not much warmth and who cares about keeping the sleeping bad clean. Take a small travel blanket if I am worried about the cold.
- Sporks suck. They say people either love or hate them, turns out I hate them. Should have gotten the long handled spoon.
- Radix freeze dried food have gone downhill. I had good experiences with them in the past, but both my dinners were awful and the "meat" had the texture of crunchy cardboard. The berry breakfast was so sweet that I felt sickly... I couldn't face breakfast on the Sunday despite it being a banana one and assumedly much less sickly sweet.
- Sliced mango was great snack food, thanks Sam.
- The little sink thing was very handy! Having a bowl of water at camp made many cleaning tasks much easier.
- Didn't feel too dirty after 3 days in the same clothes. Washing hands, face, neck and feet really help.
- Take a day pack and ditch the big backpack whenever possible! Don't do really difficult rock climbing with a huge and heavy backpack on.
No comments:
Post a Comment